


Drip

by Al_in_the_air



Series: October Daily-ish Challenge [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: And Ron tries his hardest to not be insensitve, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, HBP missing moment, Half Blood Prince Missing Moment, Hermione has imposter syndrome, Pre Romione get together cuteness, romione
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:49:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26995447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Al_in_the_air/pseuds/Al_in_the_air
Summary: HBP Missing moment.Hermione is upset about her OWLs and Ron just can't understand why.Or the one where Hermione has imposter syndrome and Ron tries (and semi succeeds) to be sensitive about it.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: October Daily-ish Challenge [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960765
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Drip

“Oh Ron!” 

It has been happening all morning. His mother was getting far too over excited about the OWL results, more excited than even he had been! It was a nice surprise, sure, for him to have only failed 2 of the nine exams, but he really didn’t think it warranted his mother squeezing him to within an inch of his life. 

“Mum, stop.” Ron whined, for the fifth time. 

“I can’t help it Ron! 7 OWLs! I’m so proud of you!” His mother gushed, wrapping her arms around Ron’s shoulder as he sat at the kitchen table. 

It was a nice feeling, being praised by his mother and the first time he had even welcomed it, he had leaned into her embrace feeling happy and grateful but now it was just getting ridiculous. He could feel his cheeks flushing and his ears reddening in embarrassment as she refused to release him from her grasp. “Thanks mum, you can let go now.”

She did as she was asked, reluctantly, but quickly set her sights on another target. Instead of fully moving away, she stepped just inches to her left and threw her arms around his black haired best friend. . 

“And you!” she proclaimed, “Well done Harry.”

His face was priceless, shocked and confused and almost frightened at the sudden force in which the woman had thrown himself at him. 

“Er, thanks Mrs Weasley.” said Harry with trepidation. Ron sniggered to himself at the tone of his voice. 

“I still can’t believe  _ you _ got seven OWLs.” Ginny said then, “I genuinely didn’t even think you had a brain.”

Now it was Harry’s turn to laugh as Molly scolded her daughter.

“I’m not taking it back, it's true!”

Ron kicked his sister under the table and smirked as she swore at his foot colliding with her shin. She deserved it, even though she knew she was - mostly - joking, it was still mean. 

They both opened their mouths to retort at the same time, but sensing trouble Harry managed jump in first. “Wanna play a few rounds of 2 on 2 then?”

“Yeah!” Ginny replied quickly, though she was still scowling dangerously. “I’m not going on  _ his _ team though.”

“I don't want to be on yours either!"

Harry laughed, rolling his eyes exasperatedly, “Okay fine, Ginny, you can be on my team and Ron, you can go with Hermione. Sound good?” 

Ron thought about it for a second and knew instantly he was about to lose spectacularly, though that tended to be the case with Hermione was paired up with anybody.

“Yeah cool. Where’s Hermione?” He hadn’t noticed Hermione leave the room, though now that thought about it, she hadn’t been at the table for a while. 

“Writing to her parents.” Harry and Ginny said in unison, they both laughed as they caught each others eyes.

Ron scowled. Since when had those two gotten on so well anyway? 

“I’ll go get her. You two go get the brooms.” Ron said, secretly a tiny bit excited at getting a few moments alone with Hermione. They’d had a great two days before Harry had arrived. Not that he didn’t love it when Harry was there too. It was just nice sometimes, to have some one on one time with her, after all, she was his best friend too. 

It actually took quite a while to find Hermione, she wasn’t at the writing desk in the living room where Ron had assumed she’d be, nor was she holed up in Ginny’s tiny bedroom. He had all but given up and assumed she’d made her way downstairs already when he passed the middle floor bathroom. 

The door was ajar, opposing, normal, but as he passed he heard the faint dripping of recently turned off taps that told him someone was in there. 

“Er, Hermione, you in here?” he asked, rapping his knuckles on the wood. The door creaked open at the knock. “Oh, er, sorry.”

“No, it's fine.” Hermione said, though it was clear in everything about her that it wasn’t. She was on the edge of the bath, head ducked low and shoulders hunched together. She sniffed as she spoke, and rubbed quickly at her eyes, flinching as she hit the tender skin on her left eye. She looked annoyed at herself as tears started filling up in her eyes again. 

“Er, what’s up?” Ron asked tentatively. He couldn’t cope with crying girls. “Do you want me to get mum?”

“No, no! I’m fine!” Hermione replied hastily, rubbing at her eyes more gently this time and raising from the porcelain edge.

“What about Ginny?” 

“No honestly, I’m okay.” 

She clearly wasn’t though. Ron knew this girl well enough to know when she was about to burst into tears. 

“Look, if this is about the black eye, I’m sure Fred and George will have something for it.” 

Hermione nodded for a second, turning her head to sniff loudly. So it wasn’t the black eye she was upset about. 

What was it then, because it wasn’t like Hermione to just randomly get weepy in the middle of the afternoon? Ron wracked his brain for a second, still standing dumbly in the bathroom doorway. Oh! Bloody hell. 

“It’s not a girl problem is it?!” He said hurriedly, hoping against hope he’d manage to keep his sheer horror out of his voice and that she knew what he meant.

“Really Ron? Straight to blaming my period?” 

His face and ears flushed again. He could feel his pulse beating in his cheeks. Yep, cool he was wrong. Cool, cool, cool. He wished the floor would swallow him up, or at the very least someone would just avada him. He’d lived a good life, this seemed a reasonable place to end. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “What are you upset about then? You can tell me.” 

“You’ll laugh at me.” Hermione whispered to the floor. After what he just said, she was worried  _ he’d _ laugh at  _ her _ ?

“I won’t,” he said, and he meant it.

“I’m disappointed in myself for not getting better OWLs.” 

“Are you mental?” 

The words were out before he even really had a moment to process them and he kicked himself at his insensitivity. 

“See!” Hermione shrieked, “I told you you’d laugh at me.” She made to push past him but he was quicker than her, not to mention taller and stronger now. 

“No, Hermione I’m sorry. I just don’t understand how you can be disappointed. You got more Outstandings today than me Fred, George, Charlie  _ and _ Bill combined!”

Tears welled in Hermione’s eyes again, “I just should’ve done better. I have to be good at everything.”

“You are good at everything?” He was being sincere, perhaps more sincere than he had ever been in his life. He wasn’t confident he knew a lot of things, but he was confident he knew that.

“No, you-you don’t understand Ron. I have to be better. I have to do better. I can’t fall behind. I can’t start losing points in exams! I just can’t! I should have gotten an O in ‘Defence’. I should have done better in ‘Runes’.”

She was right, he didn’t understand. He was genuinely confused, he just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Hermione was the smartest witch he had ever known, including McGonagall and his mother. He knew it, Harry knew it. The entire faculty at Hogwarts knew it, and she was the only one oblivious to the fact that she was bloody brilliant.

“Why?” He asked eventually, after a long moment of silence filled only with dripping tap and Hermione’s shuddering breaths. “Why do you have to be the best at everything? You got 9 Outstandings and you're not even happy about those? You could’ve got 100% in every exam you ever did and do in your life and you still wouldn't be happy. You need to give yourself a break.”

“I can’t. I just- I just.” The tears began freefalling. Hermione was gasping in her hysteria and looked as if she was going to collapse to the ground any second.

He didn’t know if it was the distress of seeing her like that, or the fact that she really did look unsteady on her feet but before he could even think about it he did something he’d never done in the five years he’d known her - he pulled her into a hug. And instead of reacting with horror and confusion like he was half convinced she would, she reciprocated quickly, wrapping her arms around his waist and sobbed into Ron’s t-shirt. 

He didn’t like seeing people cry, he always felt uncomfortable and awkward and like he needed to run from the room immediately. Usually he did anyway. While he absolutely felt uncomfortable and out of his depth, the thought of leaving Hermione alone and upset in the state she was in outweighed everything.

They stood there for an unknown length of time, Ron holding onto her tightly and her clutching him as if he was her lifeline. He didn’t know how she did it, but she always managed to smell like ink and honey. 

“I’m being silly.” She murmured after a minute.

“If it upsets you it's not silly.” Said Ron with a sensitive that surely didn’t belong to him.

“I just always feel like it's all going to get ripped away from me. I am constantly waiting for someone to realise they made a mistake. That I shouldn’t have gotten my letter and it was all one big joke. I always feel like I have just been lucky this whole time and don’t actually belong here. I’m scared every day that someone’s going to pull me away and tell me it was all some stupid mistake.” 

“Don’t be daft Hermione, no one in the world could ever look at you and think you don't belong here.” 

“But they do!” she squeaked. “There’s loads of people out there who not only don't think I should be here but want to kill me for it. I feel like I have to fight every day to prove that I am good enough. And I’m not. I’m never going to be good enough! That’s why I'm always so scared to fail exams. I don't want to give them any more ammunition or a chance to tell me I don't belong here. “

All of a sudden it was like every single ‘Hermione-ism” she’d ever exhibited made sense, the time she’d crammed in so many subjects she made herself ill from lack of sleep. The panic and obsession with good grades and her boggart telling her she was a failure.

“You do belong here Hermione. I know it’s not a lot coming from me, but you do. And me and Harry and Ginny and the entire bloody Order are willing to fight anyone who ever makes you feel like you don't.” 

They didn’t speak for a while after that but after a few seconds of silence, Hermione’s breathing seemed to return to almost normal and after another couple of moments she pulled away. Eyes dry and once again standing steady on her own. 

“Thanks Ron.”

“Don’t mention it.” He said with a smile and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He had found it oddly nice to be that close to her, even if the circumstances were off. She was warm and shit nicely against him. Plus this is something friends did right? This was friendly? “Anyway Hermione, I really wouldn’t worry. I heard Dumbledore got a T in his ‘Care of’ OWL.”

“What?” She spluttered, looking up to meet his eye. 

“Yeah.. His bird kept setting on fire.”

She laughed despite his terrible joke and smacked his stomach lightly. Ron laughed too, happy that she was happy again. Happy that he had made her happy again.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! This is my first venture into Romione and honestly I enjoyed it.
> 
> Don't just me for how much I have missed of this challenge I am useless :D


End file.
